Wednesday, September 8, 2010

You need to learn more about Islam

This is Wendy Pellegrino - a Staten Island woman who claims "everything she needs to know about Islam, she learned on 9/11."

Let try to put aside all the political implications for a moment. She is obviously grieving. She knows many others who are grieving as well.

It sucks to lose someone you love, who is close to you, for no apparent reason. It's also nice to have a scapegoat. 

Ms. Pellegrino decided to sidestep Al-Qaeda, bin Laden, the Taliban, the hijackers who slammed planes into the buildings, the Bush Administration for not heeding the warnings, the Clinton administration for bombing the wrong Sudanese factory, the CIA's support for Islamic Jihad against the Soviet Union in the '80s, Rudy Giuliani's lack of a control central which left firefighters in the stairwells and 9-11 operators telling people to "stay put."

All of these are potential, though not necessarily correct, targets of anger from a person like Ms. Pellegrino. But she chose a religion - Islam.

I'm sorry for your loss, truly I am. But this does not give you the right to malign a faith of over 1 billion people as terrorists. 

You may have "learned something" about Islam on 9/11, but it's not everything. And pretending this promotes the basest form of ignorance and intolerance.

It's not all you need to know about Islam. And maybe you should find out a little more before you step up to a microphone again.

We recommend starting with this Op-Ed in the New York Times from Feisal Abdul Rauf, the Imam who is hoping to bridge gaps and promote peace among religions throughout the world.

Read it, when you get a chance. You might learn something.

3 comments:

  1. It's kind of ironic that many of those who think the ground zero mosque will bring about Sharia are same type of people who would fully support the Christian equivalent in the US.

    It's pretty sickening that some people seem to want the US to be at war with all of Islam. That's exactly what terrorists want too. And since there are 1.6 billion Muslims in the world compared to the US population of 300 million, they've actually considered the odds.

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  2. At no point in the article does Feisal Abdul Rauf address the possibility of COMPROMISE -- moving the mosque a few blocks.

    The mosque is on Park Place, two blocks from the North Tower, in the killing grounds. I worked on Park Place back then; one of the engines of the airplanes landed on Murray and Broadway. After Sept 11 the whole area was cordoned off; Park Place by the proposed mosque was within the cordoned off area.

    COMPROMISE. I'm an aethesist on the outside looking in, but if I was a catholic, and some catholic nitwits hijacked some airplanes and flew them into towers in Saudi Arabia killing thousands of Arabs saying it was in the name of Catholics everywhere, and 9 years later some dim wit Catholic decided to BUILD A CHURCH two blocks from one of the towers, as a catholic I would yell out "MOVE THE CHURCH". "DON'T STEP ON THESE PEOPLE'S TOES". "WE'VE DONE ENOUGH YOU CAN SEE THEY ARE SENSITIVE".

    Instead what you get from Feisal Abdul Rauf is a warning that to not go through with the project will cause Muslim extremists to blow something else up.

    MOVE THE MOSQUE. This article has taught me something -- Feisal Abdul Rauf does not even discuss COMPROMISE. He is bull headed, laying down more crap about how the community supports the project.

    Does he speak for all muslims? Why isn't there a muslim leader out there willing to come out and say "Move the mosque"?

    MOVE THE MOSQUE. In the order of COMPROMISE. I speak from pure logic.

    Read the article again, SIDump. Maybe you will learn something.

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  3. It is every Staten Islander's right to remain ignorant. Why should I have to know what I'm talking about? Knowledge and foresight are unAmerican. Stop taking cheap shots at fine Americans like Wendy Pellegrino from your liberal ivory tower. Now excuse me while I drape myself in raw bacon to shield myself from the terrorists.
    Good Day.

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